A few months ago, I explored the benefits and applications of cold therapy. Today, I’m going to talk about the benefits and applications of heat therapy—one of the most ubiquitous and ancestral therapies in the history of humankind. You name a culture and—as long as they didn’t live in perpetual tropical heat—they probably had some form of heat therapy. Native Americans had the sweat lodge, those of Central America the temazcal. The Romans had the thermae, which they picked up and refined from the Greeks. Other famous traditions include Finnish saunas, Russian banyas, Turkish hammams, Japanese sentó (or the natural spring-fed onsen), and the Korean jjimjilbang. People really like the heat.

(This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

It’s about that time: the start of the school year. Bleary-eyed kids everywhere are dragged from bed, thrown into clothing, handed an energy bar and glass of juice, and shuttled off to spend hours sitting at a desk. They come home, do hours of homework, squeeze in some screen time, squeeze some vaguely edible goo into their mouths, update their Facebook status, post a few Instagram pics, and climb into bed by 10 PM sharp, Snapchatting their way to the land of Nod. Then it starts all over again. I’m exaggerating, a bit. Things aren’t this bad—childhood Facebook usage is actually down! But too many children aren’t getting enough sleep.

(This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Elle Russ chats with Dr. Mona Morstein - a naturopathic physician with a medical practice focused in integrative diabetes treatment. Her clinic, Arizona Integrative Medical Solutions, is located in Tempe, Arizona, where she sees patients of all ages and genders for acute and chronic conditions. An expert on prediabetes and diabetes, she is a frequent lecturer at conferences and webinars, and is the founder and executive director of The Low Carb Diabetes Association. Dr. Morstein is a member of the Arizona Diabetes Coalition and her new book is Master Your Diabetes: A Comprehensive, Integrative Approach for Both Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes

Enjoy this simulcast from Brad Kearns Facebook Live event, and join the Keto Reset Facebook community. Many topics relating to keto and healthy living are covered in this fast-moving show. Brad shares highlights of a recent conversation with Mark Sisson about metabolic flexibility and "fractal eating." Mark relates how his lifelong keto strategy is to spend lots of time fasting or in ketogenic eating patterns, but not worry about the details such that occasionally he will consume carbs outside the traditional keto range, but in what he calls the "keto zone." Mark mentioned a recent discussion with Dr. Joe Mercola who argues that fasting during jet travel protects you from the high levels of radiation and EMFs you face on an airplane, and also the lack of top foods available when you are on the go.

Metabolic flexibility really means that you can handle anything, from fasting and turbocharged fat and ketone burning to perhaps even a carb binge. Brad discusses his recent experiment, inspired by Chris Kelly and Dr. Tommy Wood of NourishBalanceThrive.com, to consume additional nutritious calories to support his athletic training and recovery goals. It's also likely that you face a different set of decision making parameters based on your body fat goals and blood markers. Those recovering from metabolic damage or trying to drop excess body fat might pay more attention to carb intake levels until they achieve their goals. Those interested in performance and recovery can be more flexible. Ben Greenfield relates that he spends a lot of time fasted or in keto, but enjoys life in the evenings with his family, including consuming nutritious meals and treats that might be high in carbs. So what? He makes sure he recovers for future intense workouts and also that he enjoys life. Furthering that concept, we discuss Brian McAndrew's (Instagram @WholeDoods) quickly-going-viral concept that "life will give you refeeds"- so you don't have to obsessively plan them or track them. This is just a small taste of many other fun topics covered, so check out this show and send your comments and feedback to info@ketoreset.com

Learning a new skill: Practice for an hour each day and you’ll become a master. Spend twelve hours one time and never again, and you’ll remain a beginner.

The same is true for nutrition. A consistent, reliable way of eating—especially with a diet like keto, where extended consistency actually builds new fat-burning mitochondria and establishes habits—tends to produce the best results.

But what if you wanted to be a little less consistent? What if you wanted to cycle between Primal and keto? Is such a thing even possible?

Yes. Just make sure you do it right—and for the right reasons.

(This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Next month, Primal Kitchen® will be teaming up with the Whole30® crew to help support people doing the Whole30 program. The guidelines complement the Primal Blueprint, after all, and the Primal Blueprint is a common after-Whole30 approach to long-term vitality for many folks. The Whole30 itself offers incredibly valuable feedback on the effects of certain foods on your health, and it’s an amazing kick-start for turning your diet (and well-being) around. Today I’m offering up my top tips for a successful Whole 30 experience.

(This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Elle Russ chats with Seamus Mullen, an award-winning New York chef, restaurateur and cookbook author about his struggles with Rheumatoid Arthritis and his journey to complete healing through FOOD. An avid cyclist who raced competitively in his twenties, he was diagnosed in 2007 with rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease that forced him to rethink his relationship with food, and led to his first cookbook Hero Food, published in 2012. His second book Real Food Heals was released in 2017. Through food, exercise and lifestyle changes, Seamus was able to successfully turn his health around. For 7 years now, Seamus has been off all RA medication and has no RA markers on his blood results!

Seamus opened his first solo restaurant Tertulia in Manhattan in 2011, which was awarded two stars from The New York Times and was a finalist for the James Beard Foundation Award for Best New Restaurant. In 2013, he opened El Colmado a Spanish tapas and wine bar at Gotham West Market, a food hall in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen. His latest venture is fast-casual concept Whitley Bird & Greens.

After cooking throughout Spain, New York, and San Francisco, Seamus first rose to national prominence in 2006 with Boqueria, one of the first critically acclaimed and highly successful Spanish restaurants in New York. In 2009, he was one of three finalists on the Food Network’s “The Next Iron Chef.” He can often be seen as a featured judge on the popular Food Network series “Chopped” and “Beat Bobby Flay,” and is a frequent guest on programs such as The Today Show, The Martha Stewart Show and CBS This Morning.

If you’re looking for an easy way to incorporate a beginning strength training practice (or just a little extra effort) into your exercise routine, wearable weights—which include weighted vests, ankle weights and wrist weights—can seem like a no-brainer. After all, you’re technically investing the same amount of time and doing the same activities but just with more effort and benefit. And you just have to slip them on and go, right?

Not exactly.

(This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Brian is a personal trainer and scratch golfer from Chicago who has had some great success with intermittent fasting for both himself and his clients. He was initially inspired when he became frustrated by his inability to achieve the same results in the gym at age 38 as he did at 28 - imagine that! He started with the simple strategy of pushing his breakfast back an hour at a time until he was able to comfortably adjust to eating his first meal at around noon. Consequently, Brian typically ends up eating only two meals a day. Brian and Brad discuss an assortment of common sense tips to make fasting work for you, in particular: Be strict with your exercise so you don’t have decision fatigue and will power needed every day to stick with your plan; move around and keep busy during your fasting periods to make time fly by faster; clean up your diet so you can minimize glucose spikes and insulin crashes; make sure your dietary practices are a smooth fit into your busy life.

Brian offers the memorable quote that muscles are made in the gym but that six-pack abs are made from diet. Another key benefit of adhering to some sort of fasting protocol is that you develop greater appreciation for natural hunger and satiety sensations, and gain a greater sense of control in your life than when you have to rely on food for your energy, mood, and cognition. Enjoy numerous simple, common-sense insights that will get you psyched to try and succeed with Intermittent Fasting!

If you ask the average person, ketosis is primarily about carb restriction and fat intake. Go on a low-carb diet, eat more fat, allow your body to burn its own reserves. Pretty straightforward. Ketones are supposed to replace glucose.

But what do we make of protein? Some keto dieters avoid it like the plague, worried anything more than a quarter pound of animal flesh will knock them back into sugar-burning purgatory. Some have even likened it to “chocolate cake.” Others eat it freely. Who’s right?

Well…

(This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

She is also the author Turn Your Mate Into Your Soulmatedevoted to exploring a simple, fun and effective way to attain groundbreaking shifts in perception so that you can embrace and find the beauty and perfection in yourself and your mate. I call this “going from annoyed to enjoyed!” Arielle has been called “The Cupid of Consciousness”, and “The Fairy Godmother of Love.”

Arielle lives in La Jolla, CA with her husband/soulmate, Brian Hilliard and their feline friends. Join her newsletter at www.soulmatesecret.com

People like to get healthy, burn body fat, increase their aerobic capacity, and improve their cognitive function. The ketogenic diet is an excellent way to obtain those outcomes, which partially explains its meteoric rise in popularity. But people also like to drink alcohol. You might say it’s a toxin—I wouldn’t disagree. You might say we’d be better off without it—perhaps. The fact remains that people have been drinking for tens of thousands of years, and they’re not going to stop anytime soon.

Can keto and alcohol coexist? Is there anything we need to take into consideration?

First things first, does alcohol inhibit ketosis?

(This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Brian McAndrew, the man behind the scenes of all of Primal’s audio and video production efforts, takes the stage again as the honored guest on the keto-themed podcast. At the age of 31, Brian has had quite a healthy journey of vast exploration and deep immersion. He’s been hard-core keto for over two years, all the while pursuing ambitious goals in the weight room. Brian’s experiences include: dealing with a serious parasite infection contracted while swimming in an African pond (hey it’s hot in Sierra Leone for an Oregon coast boy!); plunging into the trendy LA juice bar health scene and digging a hole from veganism and chronic cardio; getting big into the familiar combo of Paleo and Crossfit; getting a burnt out on Crossfit and transitioning into a pattern of MAF pace cardio workouts along with high-intensity strength training.

Brian is constantly tweaking and testing on our behalf and today has a very groovy rhythm of simple, delicious meals, eating enough food to fuel his ambitious workouts, not stressing about testing his ketone numbers, and enjoying occasional departures from keto followed by effortless recalibrations. This is a very informative show where Brian shares insights from many resources; he processes and consumes a ton of podcasts and has 12,000 followers on his Instagram account (@WholeDoods) despite rarely writing anything more than, “I’m eating this” or showing pictures of his cute one-year-old daughter.

Brian’s meals on Instagram and Brad’s underground recipe videos have become so popular that the duo are working on a top-secret book for lazy doods who want to cook keto but can’t be bothered to follow complex recipes.

Elle Russ chats with Haley Morris, Certified Primal Health Coach and Holistic Life Coach and a thought leader who focuses her efforts on being the change she wishes to see in the world. Haley dedicates her life to creating value for others-helping people like you achieve what they are dreaming about. She does this by sharing her life experiences, by being a supportive and motivating friend/coach, and by helping people who want to live in health, wealth, success and happiness succeed through the process.

Brad tackles some interesting and diverse Q&A, including a lengthy discussion about the big question: Why aren't you losing weight on keto? A 70-year-old keto enthusiast who's lost 27 pounds in a few months now wants to increase energy. Another question comes about Brad's experiment with morning smoothies and increased caloric intake, with some commentary on the increasingly popular topic of digestive circadian rhythm and the work of Dr. Panda. Another question comes about evening leg cramps and possibly attribution to keto.